job screening question

Sat Jul 7 18:13:19 UTC 2012

On Sat, Jul 07, 2012 at 11:01:29AM -0700, JC Dill wrote:
> On 06/07/12 9:06 PM, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> >>Maybe it's more significant to ask what the difference between TCP and UDP is.
> >Yes, the difference between TCP and UDP is a much better question to ask,
> >but having HR assess and act on the answer to the question is a whole hell
> >of a lot harder.
> 
> The best path is to have HR report the answer verbatim for the
> hiring manager to do the assessing.  Then the hiring manager can
> decide which candidates proceed to the next level of interviews.

Two problems there:

* We've already had mention made in this thread of the problems associated
  with HR attempting to record, verbatim, an answer provided by a candidate. 
  Unless all your HR phone screeners are experienced stenographers (who, I
  will note, can typically command salaries far in excess of HR associates),
  their chances of getting an accurate record of a candidate's statements is
  slim.

* If you're going to have to carefully examine each candidate's answers
  *anyway*, why not just get on the phone screen with them in the first
  place, and get HR out of the picture?  At least that way you're not
  wasting money paying for HR people, and you can do a far more in-depth
  interview because you're there, in real-time, to ask follow-up questions.

- Matt

-- 
MySQL seems to be the Windows of the database world. Broken, underspecced,      
and mainly only popular due to inertia and people who don't really know what    
they're doing.
		-- Peter Corlett, in the Monastery